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As of yesterday, any business can register .XXX domain names despite the fact that such domain names are reserved for businesses in the adult entertainment industry.   The .XXX domain was made official by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board earlier this year, and the Sunrise period – starting yesterday – ends on October 28^th.  Businesses, both in and out of the adult entertainment industry, are allowed to apply to register .XXX domains during this Sunrise period.

Without getting into too many details, this Dunner Law Blog is meant to alert our clients that registration of the new .XXX domain is going to create a number of trademark issues for legitimate trademark owners.  Domain Registrars do not conduct trademark searches to determine whether a particular domain is available for use – in other words, if an adult entertainment business wishes to apply to register nike.xxx, the Domain Registrar might allow it as long as the applicant meets other registration requirements.

ICM Registry is the Florida based registry in charge of operating the new .XXX domain.  ICM has created two concurrent Sunrise periods – A and B – to allow both members and non-members of the adult entertainment industry to either register or opt out (block) registration of certain .XXX domains.  Sunrise B is for owners of trademark registrations who are not members of the adult entertainment industry.  Such owners should take advantage of Sunrise B to reserve certain .XXX domains to ensure that they are not taken by businesses in the adult entertainment industry.  For more information on Sunrise B and the process to block a .XXX domain, visit ICM’s web page at this link: http://www.icmregistry.com/launch/sunrise-b/

We strongly recommend that you consider this preemptive measure to protect your registered trademarks.  If you would like to understand more about this new domain and the Sunrise B registration process, do not hesitate to give us a call.